When you’re looking for a job, you don’t have a lot of chances to catch the interest of a potential employer. After the cover letter, the curriculum vitae (CV) or resume is one of the first documents recruiters see. To keep them interested in you, this document should highlight your strengths, be easy to scan, yet look unique and interesting.

You may wonder what the difference is between a CV and a resume? The main difference is the length. A resume is a one or two page summary of your education, skills, and experiences. A CV covers more details and is primarily used when applying for jobs in academia, education, science, and research.

A great way to quickly compile a resume and not forget about any details are online tools. This article covers the top 3 websites to create a CV or build a free resume online.

Don’t be misled by the name. As I said, the main difference between a CV and a resume is the length. So simply limit yourself to the essential details and this CV builder will create a document that qualifies as a resume.

CeeVee essentially works like editing an online profile. You’re not guided through the process step-by-step, you can fill in the information in any order you please. To customize your document, you can add sections to your resume, remove existing sections, and add as many entries to each section as you like. You can also choose from three different themes, which will affect both the display on the website, as well as the output document.

The resulting CV or resume can be shared online, downloaded as a PDF, or you can print it.

This tool isn’t as pretty as CeeVee, but definitely a more advanced way to build a free resume online. Another advantage is that you don’t have to sign up to use it.

You start by selecting your desired resume style. In the next steps you fill in your personal information, education, employment, and any additional information. Before completing the document, you can choose font styles and colors.

The document can be printed or downloaded as PDF, HTML, or plain text. If you would like to save the document online to come back and edit it later, you will have to sign up.

The PCman Website also provides online services to create a cover letter and reference page.

3. Advice Resources CV Builder

This CV or resume builder leaves you with two options. You can either view a list of templates and download any you like or take the step-by-step builder route. Neither requires you to sign up, but to save your CV online, you have to create an account. However, this can wait until you have seen the result.

Building your CV is done in 12 steps. The tool polls for your name, contact details, motivation, work experience, skills, education, additional qualifications, personal interests, referees, and finally your preferred layout. You can then download and check the result as a .rtf document and eventually go back and edit your CV.

of course I tried Emurse. And Emurse was the reason I added the warning at the end of the article to thoroughly test any service before actually using it.

I set up my resume and tried using the service that lets you send your resume directly to potential employers. Of course I sent it to myself. The eMail with file attachment arrived fine, however, the documents were useless.

The error message in Word was something like "the converter could not be started: mswrd632.wpc." The document that opened was empty. In Adobe Reader the pdf could not be opened because "the file type is not supported or because the file is damaged".

Moreover, I replied to Alex' welcome message ["We'd love to hear any feedback you may have (both positive and negative)."] and explained the issue. I have not yet heard back from them and it has been 9 days.

CeeVee: clean interface, customizable, but give the control to the user (doesn't help me, to create my CV)

The others: Ugle UI, but help me through making CV. But main problem that they create so lame CV.

Don't feel bad, because I'm working on creating Web Application that will be both. great UI and walks me through with tips on creating a new CV. My application will be a repository and on-the-fly create tailored resumes for every job description (Not one resume to rule them all)

Tina has been writing about consumer technology for over a decade. She holds a Doctorate in Natural Sciences, a Diplom from Germany, and an MSc from Sweden. Her analytical background has helped her excel as a technology journalist at MakeUseOf, where she's now managing keyword research and operations.